Bear
by RedLA
Summary: Trusting someone is a difficult thing, trusting Neal Caffrey is an incredibly difficult task.  Neal trying to convince someone to trust him again, well, that's going to take awhile.  Neal's Daughter oc...
1. Chapter 1

Disclosure: I don't own white collar or any of the involved characters…

(Don't be too harsh to begin with! I haven't posted on here in ages)

It was a sweltering day in New York. The city had been suffering power outages all day because of all the extra air conditioners and fans turned on. Peter Burke was sweating through his shirt and it wasn't making him happy, neither was the errand he had to do.

Peter Burke looked at the address on the small piece of paper in his hand. A beautiful Brooklyn brownstone, as he walked up the stairs, he questioned the reaction of the person he was about to talk to. She was known for being rather fickle, and Peter was never sure if he was going to catch her in a good mood or, well, he had to admit cold was the appropriate term.

About thirty seconds after Peter knocked on the door, a pretty middle aged woman answered the door with a smile, in her linen shorts and simple tee shirt with her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, she had the well cared for yet casual look of the new york elite.

"Hello, Peter, how can I help you?" Peter showed her his badge

"Is Lee here? I'd like to speak with her."

The woman's face froze, then she quickly recovered her composure. The woman called into the house, "Lee! Come out here for a minute." A few seconds later, a young woman appeared, She was fairly tall, probably around five foot eight, wearing a simple black pair of shorts and a blue tank top. She had long dark brown hair, blue eyes, and she looked mildly suspicious at the sight of Peter in the doorway.

"I'm headed out, we just ran out of popsicles and that's just not going to suffice. Come with me?"

Peter just nodded his head and followed the girl out the door. Lee called back at the woman still watching from the doorway.

"Carol, stop worrying, I'll be back in a bit and we'll finish watching Project Runway."

The FBI agent and the young woman were quite for a few minutes as she led them through the side streets of Manhattan.

"How have you been?"

Peter spoke conversationally, hoping to keep the mood as light as possible.

"How've I been? Really? That's what you're going to lead with?"

"Just trying to be polite."

Lee smiled as they reached the store front. The sign read, Susan's Patisserie.

"They make the best sugar free popsicles in manhattan."

Peter grabbed her wrist as she reached for the door handle.

"Your father wants to see you. He said he wouldn't ask me for this very odd favor, but you haven't been answering his letters. I'm going tomorrow around 10, he wants to talk to me about something. You could come if you wanted to."

Lee rolled her eyes, "tell Neal that I don't appreciate being summoned by the feds."

Peter sighed and held up his hands in defeat, "don't shoot the messenger. It was good to see you Lee."

As he turned to walk away, he turned as he heard Lee call his name. She was still standing at the entrance to the store, "pick me up at 10."


	2. Chapter 2

Please review! Say something?

Sorry its short, I'm running out the door!

"How's Lee doing?"

Elizabeth asked her husband curiously as he came in the door and gave her a kiss.

"Seems fine, she was running out to get more popsicles when I got there. The diabetic would find a way around that rule. She's still mad at Neal. Wasn't going to go visit him when I asked the first time."

Elizabeth sighed and sat down next to her husband on the couch, rubbing slow circles on his back as he unbuttoned his shirt, she spoke reasonably.

"Can you really blame her? God Peter, remember when he first went to jail, she was eleven, it was heartbreaking. I wanted her to live with us. He's so young, that girl never had any stability."

Peter chuckled, "that would have been, such a terrible idea. What are they calling them now? Oh, yeah, we could not have handled a tween in the house. Besides, you did the second best thing and hired her."

With a mock punch to her husband's arm, Elizabeth had to protest the statement.

"She answered the ad and was a great applicant. We needed more waitresses, and, she's incredible with people. Her first week there I saw her spill a tray of drinks on a guy and at the end of the altercation, he was apologizing."

Peter pulled his wife on top of him, kissing her softly.

"El, can we stop talking about the Caffrey's please? It's Saturday."

Elizabeth pulled away one last time,

"But honey, what do you think will happen tomorrow? How will Neal react when he sees her?"

Peter groaned, he thought he had finished with the Caffrey's.

"He'll be thrilled, he's always thrilled. He adores her even if she doesn't reciprocate."


	3. Chapter 3

Please give me some reviews! I have so many page views but no opinions!

"You're quiet tonight Lee."

Carol spoke carefully as she looked at the girl across the table. In three years Lee had changed so much from the incoming ninth grader she had met the day her daughter Amanda started at St Anthony's high school. Little did she know then, within six months of knowing Lee, she would be living with them and finally moved out of temporary foster care situations. Carol and George might be permissive parents, but Carol and her husband always suspected that moving in with their family was the best thing that had happened to Lee in a very long time.

Lee pushed her spoon around in her soup without showing any real interest in it.

"I just hate going there."

"To the prison?"

Amanda questioned with a smile on her face.  
>"Thanks Amanda, way to soften the blow."<p>

The blonde sitting next to Lee at the oak dining table kicked Lee's leg playfully.

"I try I try, just keeping you honest."

George Parker was a good man and a fair man. He worked his way up in the world and ended up a very successful lawyer in New York. Bringing Lee into his family was never a question for him, they had more than they needed, they had the room, all three members of the family adored her, and therefore, she should live with them. So it was upsetting to him to see Lee so out of sorts. Running a hand through his grey streaked brown hair, he spoke as diplomatically as he could.

"Just go and listen. That's all you need to do. If you get uncomfortable, just leave, that agent, Burke, I'm sure he'll bring you back whenever you want to go. It might be nice to see your father for a little while."

Lee nodded; she could appreciate George's opinion and valued it most of the time.

"I know, and I know I sound like such an asshat when I say, oh, I don't like visiting my dad, its just, he makes things so difficult. Like, this sounds awful, but, it's just easier to forget about him you know? He was supposed to be getting out, and that might have been alright, but then he breaks out of jail for Kate and gets himself put in again. So, it's like, what do you want from me Neal? To visit you like some doting child for the rest of my life. I, I don't know, it's just all so complicated with him. I love him, I do, but god, he just can't do anything right can he."

Lee's voice cracked slightly as she finished her sentence and she rose from the seat as tears welled in her eyes. She spoke quietly as she excused herself from the table.

"I'll be right back."

Amanda looked back at the sight of Lee walking from the table and was frowning by the time she turned to her parents.

"It's weird seeing her upset. Kind of gives me the chills you know? She's been so unflappable since the day we met."

Carol smiled at her daughter, "I know baby, none of us like it. Hopefully tomorrow will be the end of this mess for a while at least."

Lee looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She never really knew her mother; Lindsay, who took off when she was three. She had seen photos, but there wasn't really a very strong resemblance between the two. Unfortunately, Lee seemed to be all Caffrey. Pulling her hair away from her face, she looked at the girl in the mirror. The girl had fair skin which always seemed to get a light shade of bronze this time of year, her blue eyes mirrored her fathers with their bright color, her even nose even bore a strong resemblance to Neal's. Most of the time Lee wished genetics hadn't worked quite that well in her case.

"Come on Caffrey, pull yourself together."

Lee encouraged herself as she walked out the bathroom door to rejoin her surrogate family in the dining room.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey all! So, I got a job, and subsequently got busy, also, got a little uninspired. Review and help me get inspired again!

Lee sighed deeply as she glanced at the clock in the visitation room, she had only been sitting there for six minutes and it already felt like she had been there for an hour. The buzzer sounded for the door opening and Lee looked up.

Her sigh seemed to repeat itself as she watched her father walk into the room. He was as handsome as ever and looked incredibly pleased to see Lee. His smile only broadened as he sat down across the table from his daughter. Lee didn't fake a smile but she did fake her tone.

"Hi! How are you? What's going on?"

Neal's smile faded from his face as he studied the young woman sitting across from him.

"It's not drugs, I can tell that much."

Lee was puzzled, Neal usually made more sense.

"Has jail finally gotten to you? What are you talking about?"

"Did Peter slip you a twenty or something? You're being very cheery, but it feels forced."

He smiled as he watched Lee's shoulders visibly relax and the painfully large smile left her face.

"I was trying a new thing."

"Crack?"

"Giving you a chance."

Neal put his hand over hers, "I'm touched. Thank you, am I doing alright?"

Lee slowly pulled her hand away.

"I can't do this for another five years. I'm going to be straight with you, I just can't do it. I hate this place, it, it just, look what this stupid prison does to me."

Rolling up the sleeve to her shirt, Neal could see a patch of angry welts forming on her arm.

"Jail gives you hives? That's even possible?"

"I just hate this place, it always feels like the walls are getting smaller by the minute, excuse me for having an adverse reaction to prison, I mean I know you must think its super rad by now."

Leaning forward in his chair, Neal rested his chin on the palm of his hand and studied his daughter. She wasn't lying, she looked genuinely uncomfortable.

"Well, if I get my way with Peter this afternoon, we could be having a conversation in Manhattan by next week."

At that statement, Lee glanced up from where she had been carefully studying her nails.

"Seriously? How?"

"By becoming an FBI consultant on white collar crimes. Forgeries, bond theft, all that stuff, I figure, the best should be catching the best."

Neal finished his sentence with a confident smile, hoping it would lighten Lee's mood a bit.

"So then what? You expect me to move out of my house and come live with you? Be one big happy family? Seriously, god, that is so…"

Neal cut her off before Lee could really get going on her rant.

"Bear, listen to me."

Lee stopped short, no one, including Neal had used her childhood nickname in almost a decade. As she quieted, Neal continued.

"No, I don't. I don't expect you to move. You're happy where you're at, I can tell. If I find a good place, maybe you could come visit, stay the night? We'll see how it goes alright? Play it by ear?"

Lee nodded, "Okay."


	5. Chapter 5

I know this is a short chapter, I'm just trying to get back into the story, and well, this is what I came up with. If you have any suggestions/criticism/anything, feel free to fire away.

"I got scolded tonight."

Neal smiled as he swung open the door to reveal Lee standing on the other side, in a crisp white shirt and black pants holding a messenger bag and a paper bag.

"Really, by whom?"

"Elizabeth."

Lee paused for a second, then walked in, talking as she walked to the fridge and put the paper bag inside. As she straightened up from the fridge, she continued her train of thought. 

"She told me, 'Lee, sweetie, I know this whole situation is really weird, and if you ever want to talk, you know I'm here, but you really need to go see Neal and stop dodging his calls, in fact, here, leave a little early and go now, I know he's home, because Peter just called after he dropped Neal off.' Mind if I use your bathroom? Want to change out of my work clothes."

Lee didn't wait for an answer, merely headed towards the open door of the bathroom. As she closed the door, Neal called out a question.

"So were you? Dodging my calls?"

"Yes."

Came the muffled reply from the bathroom.

Neal couldn't help but chuckle at the honesty.

"Why?"

Neal could hear her laughter from the bathroom.

"I thought the obvious answer was, I didn't want to talk to you."

Lee came out of the bathroom in a pair of black yoga pants and a v neck white tee shirt, still stuffing her work clothes back into the duffle bag.

"You still like pie I hope?" She questioned Neal who smiled,

"I always like pie. What'd you bring me?"

"Sugar free chocolate silk pie, I was a server at a banquet for the New York Diabetes Fund tonight. They over ordered so we had full pies left. Elizabeth suggested I bring one over. I had a bite of one earlier, don't ask me what voodoo goes into that pie, but it is delicious."

As the two sat down at the pie with forks, Lee looked up and caught Neal staring at her.

"Something on my face?"

Neal shook his head, "No, you look great, I'm just glad to see you kid."

Lee could feel him smiling at her for the rest of the night.


End file.
